Hampton Creek Foods Seeks to Replace Eggs With Plants

Fast forward a couple years, and it's likely that those scrambled eggs you eat every morning will have grown in a garden instead of a chicken's lady parts. That's thanks to Hampton Creek Foods, a food tech company that's revolutionizing the egg industry with their plant-based substitutes.

The Bill Gates (among other tech heavyweights)-funded startup has been making major waves with their line of eggless eats, from the recently released Just Mayo (now flying off Whole Foods shelves nationwide) to the scrambled egg substitute Just Scramble, hitting shelves early next year.

We spoke to CEO and founder Josh Tetrick on his love for capitalism, our broken food system, and why the notion of 'Old MacDonald' is way outdated. Five things we learned from talking to this ethical entrepreneur are after the jump.

5. Yellow peas make better eggs than, well, actual eggs.
"We've looked at over 2,000 types of plants and we've identified 11 of them that are as functional or more functional than the chicken egg. Our science starts with a team of bio-chemists," Tetrick explains.

By analyzing the bio-chemical properties of these plants, they found that the Canadian yellow pea is the ideal egg substitute for their Just Mayo product. This type of intensive scientific research means tasty, animal-free substitutes that cost less and are easier on the environment.

4. Our food system is seriously broken.
"The personification of a broken food system for us is nine birds crammed in a small cage for two years, going to the bathroom all over each other, fed massive amounts of soy and corn that requires a lot of land, water, and fertilizer," Tetrick adds.

To produce eggs requires feed, water, space, manpower -- not to mention the animal experience costs and the toll on the environment. Plant-based substitutes are more efficient, healthier and cheaper.